Microscopic Coatings & Antibiotics: Fascinating Methods That Can Improve Implant Success Rate
While every surgical procedure comes with some form of risk, it's clear that dental implants are some of the most successful operations. WebMD says that implants have a 98% success rate! But there are still those patients who may still struggle with implant failure. Certain lifestyle choices and conditions can affect healing. However, these patients can look into microscopic antibiotics and coatings to improve their chances of success.
Antibiotic Microspheres
If your gums and jawline are in bad shape, your dentist may recommend scaling and root planing to get gum disease under control. During this procedure, your dentist can apply antibiotic microspheres, like Arestin, which sit inside gum pockets. What's really unique about these microspheres is that they can actually break down slowly, meaning you can have a few weeks' worth of antibiotics that release over time so that both pocket depth and bacteria decrease.
This is definitely a treatment to look into if you cannot always go in for multiple gum cleanings, but still want to be a candidate for implants. In fact, antibiotic microspheres can also be applied after your implants are placed, since some patients can suffer from implant gingivitis, or peri-implant mucositis. Some patients may have healthy gums, but still have gingivitis symptoms of inflammation after the implant is placed. The antibiotic microspheres can be placed around the implant to fix this complication.
Biocompatible Coatings
Again, while titanium implants have a high success rate, dentists can improve this material. If you do a quick Google search, you'll find that many studies have been conducted to create biocompatible coatings, or gels, which are applied to the implant posts. These coatings are applied with the hope that they'll improve osseointegration. Osseointegration refers to the fusion between the living jaw bone and artificial implant. Science Daily says that coating the implants with synthetic bone material improves this process.
Like microspheres, some of these implant coatings contain bactericides to combat bacterial infection. And a post by Nicholas Hamm says that infection is one of the most common reasons for implant failure, so the combination of bactericide and osseointegrative gels is a great way to combat this issue. While many studies say that the long-term effects of coatings are still up in the air, this kind of medical technology is pretty amazing.
Talk with a dentist or oral surgeon, such as at Treman & Treman Family Dental Care, for more information about microspheres and coatings. He or she can offer more advice on how you can speed up the healing process.
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